Someone offline told me they were surprised to see me boost recent @font.awesome announcements given my history with icon fonts.
-
Someone offline told me they were surprised to see me boost recent @font.awesome announcements given my history with icon fonts.
I get that: I’ve publicly criticized icon fonts. They created and maintain the most popular icon font. “Font” is right in the name.
Some quick thoughts… (1/5)
-
I’m a designer first and a developer second. My favorite thing to design is iconography. They’ve designed 33k icons that feel good together. Most organizations can’t design a dozen icons that feel good together. It’s pretty astounding. (2/5)
-
Their icon font predates any popular understanding of that technique’s shortcomings by a few years. They do a ton to support SVG as a valid alternative. The “Web Fonts vs SVG” page of their docs is super fair.
And while they could have easily given up on customers who still dislike SVG for whatever reason, they haven’t: They offer accessibility and subsetting options that are a lot more sophisticated than what came before. (3/5)
-
Everyone I’ve met or follow who works there has been talented and kind. While my writing about icon fonts drew plenty of criticism (see https://tylersticka.com/journal/burned-by-my-own-hot-take/), they haven’t directed any negativity my way. (4/5)
-
TL;DR: Font Awesome’s value goes beyond a `.woff2` file, they seem really nice, and their decision to support and elevate projects like @eleventy and Shoelace (now Web Awesome) is really exciting. (5/5)
-
Zach Leatherman :11ty:replied to Tyler Sticka last edited by
@tylersticka @eleventy appreciate you, Tyler!